Reuters is reporting that NTT DoCoMo is close to signing a deal with Russia’s mobile phone firm Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) to license i-mode, potentially boosting MTS’s revenues, sources close to the matter said to Reuters. A cooperation agreement between the two firms will be signed on Friday, a different source in Moscow had said, without giving further details.
ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced that its products will be available within the initial handsets selected by Telstra for the launch of i-mode. The profile deployment includes ACCESS’ NetFront browser, messaging client, JV-Lite(TM)2 Wireless Edition (a Sun-authorized Java client), SSL client and TCP/IP protocol stack. Handsets available for Telstra’s new i-mode service include NEC’s N410i and Panasonic’s P342i, with additional handsets to follow.
Since October 2001, when DoCoMo turned on its 3G network, the company’s revenue from data services has risen 27.9 percent, with customers now spending 1,970 yen, or $18.69, a month on average. Data now makes up nearly one-quarter of DoCoMo customers’ monthly bills. But the extra sales did not make up for the decline in revenue from voice calls over that period. As a result, overall spending by DoCoMo customers has fallen 6.9 percent in the past three years.
In yesterday’s WWJ Newsletter I mentioned the news last month that DoCoMo had developed a software platform for FOMA 3G phones — comprising two options: both Linux and Symbian (sorry Bill!), adding “This is big news.” WWJ’s ever-keen Digital Media Director Lawrence Cosh-Ishii pointed out last night that, in December 2003, we carried a video report from Big D’s year-end presser wherein then-CEO Tachikawa said: “Simply speaking, Microsoft is not offering an open standard and an open minded approach” and that DoCoMo “prefers Symbian and possibly Linux for 3G OS.” Never let it be said that WWJ editors miss a chance to say We Told You So!
When NTT DoCoMo unveiled its latest third-generation mobile phones on Nov. 17, gadget lovers were not disappointed. The new handsets, manufactured by five leading Japanese electronics makers, can download videos, play games, pay for groceries at convenience stores, and work as remote controls for TVs and other devices. Oh — they also make and receive phone calls. “This is the epitome of a 3G phone,” says Takeshi Natsuno, DoCoMo’s managing director for multimedia services. Not to be upstaged, Japan’s other carriers are putting the finishing touches on their own new phones, featuring everything from music downloads to international video-calling on super-sharp color displays.
Fixed-line ISP Softbank is hatching plans to enter the Japanese 3G market as a service provider. According to reports in the Japanese press this morning, Softbank has asked the government to grant it access to the radio frequencies used by KDDI, Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo.
